Now, here is a topic on which Leonardo and I are in complete agreement. It is easy to look at Haiti and conclude that it is a cursed place, but Pat Robertson was way out of line with his comments.

His statement, that the Haitians concluded a "pact with the Devil" at the time of their fight for independence, was not only ludicrous, it was historically inaccurate. I think ol' Pat may have a few screws loose.

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action.

But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished.

Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"?

If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll.

You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

'...If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style...'===I understood that you 'go about as a roaring lion seeking who to devour'. And not just believers of whatever colour. Destruction is your bread and butter.

What is really mind-boggling is that Armstrongism is still alive and well 23 years after the death of that lying, thieving jackass. (If JC didn't return in 1975 because "the Church wasn't ready," then he certainly isn't going to get in any hurry now. Unless, by "ready," Herb meant "really FUBAR"..)

Well nuclearsmile, sorry to hear that your mind is boggled! Maybe you should consider that "Armstrongism" is alive because the folks are actually devout, sincere, and motivated by the ETERNAL Holy Spirit.

Nuclearsmile said, “What is really mind-boggling is that Armstrongism is still alive and well 23 years after the death of that lying, thieving jackass.

MY COMMENT - I think people know I am no fan of Herbert Armstrong. However, I wouldn’t call him “that lying, thieving jackass”.

I believe HWA started out sincere – particularly when he arrived home one day in the very early 1930s to announce to Loma that he had just found the new family business. HWA was selling home improvements and was very impressed that the Seventh Day Adventist minister he had just sold had money during what turned out to be the very early days of the Great Depression.

I believe HWA did struggle during the Depression years although it is unclear how much of it was due to HWA studying in the library when he should have been out trying to provide for his family. I guess that time of his life could be considered start up capital investment of time to piece together his own unique brand of fear religion. However, after the Depression the investment paid off and he went on to become a very successful businessman. Being a former advertising man, I believe he was prone to embellish. For example, he would say, “This is the most IMPORTANT work on earth”.

Perhaps we didn’t fully realize it in the 1960s/1970s Feast of Tabernacles that when HWA would speak about his own personal history, HWA was being very honest with us when he would tell us that he always wanted to be a millionaire. Well, HWA fulfilled his dream and became a multi-millionaire. He never went to College yet he founded three college campuses.

I think I have posted here before that if you want to “dine with the classes”, you must sell to the masses. HWA was a quite a persuasive sales person, and he sold many of us through mass production radio, television and his monthly Plain Truth magazine.

“Many shall come in my name, and deceive many”. Time has proven HWA was one more of many people to walk the earth fulfilling this prophecy.

Herbert Armstrong was many things – mostly a complex man with many character flaws. I certainly believe the preponderance of evidence that he committed incest with daughter Dorothy.

But, I would not call him “a jackass”. Calling him a “jackass” would be over the top.

Richard wrote:"Being a former advertising man, I believe he [HWA] was prone to embellish. For example, he would say, “This is the most IMPORTANT work on earth”."

Richard, your observation is a correct one - in fact, it’s actually quite an understatement.

If you read HWA's articles carefully, you’ll find that virtually everything his mind was currently thinking upon was "the most IMPORTANT topic in the universe right now." This is a clear indication of his hyper-ego: that anything HE was reflecting upon, and therefore writing and speaking about, was central to “God’s Plan” for no other reason than that HE (HWA) thought it was.

As others point out, the Internet provides easy access to virtually every article and member/co-worker letter ever written by HWA, and so the objective facts are simple to acquire. Reading them very clearly demonstrates how extraordinarily ego-centric HWA was, and this was made possible not only by his temperament, but by the fact that supernatural fundamentalism provided him the ideological fuel to delude himself into actually believing that an All-powerful invisible Being was driving it all.

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